The Importance of Local Expertise and Response to Grid Resilience in Canada

July 8, 2026

By Blake Marchand

Sandra Pedro Discusses ABB’s Addition of Elastimold™ Portfolio Service to Milton, Ontario

Last month, ABB announced the Elastimold™ portfolio will be supported at their Service and Modernization Centre in Milton, Ontario.

There are two key factors for the decision, noted Sandra Pedro, Utility Director, ABB’s Installation Products Division. In our discussion on the announcement, she highlighted “grid resilience and the strong push for what we at ABB call in Canada for Canada.”

“Grid resilience sparked a huge influx of grid modernization projects, expansions,” she explained. “It’s caused pressure on the supply of product, required labour, layering in communities, extremely low tolerance for outages.”

“This all results in intense pressure on utilities to have what they need on hand in time, all the time. This is truly a challenge, keeping enough spares in the correct mix of product is challenging for our utilities today.”

For ABB, local service is not driven by a growing need for repairs. It is meant to be a tangible example of ABB’s dedication to supporting their Canadian utility clients and responding to their needs. Utilities don’t have the luxury to wait for repairs when repairs are needed, the move to bring Elastimold™ to Milton is about streamlining the process and removing barriers to service.

Utilities are facing challenges from extreme weather, wildfires, and other unpredictable events like roadside accidents, “you can’t mitigate all of it. So, there will be unpredictable damage done to the grid.”

“True grid resilience is about achieving the improvement of the speed of how quickly you can recover,” she explained. “It’s the response to these events.”

Previously, Elastimold™ was serviced in New Jersey. The transportation piece reduces turnaround time considerably, as well as removes any headaches or paperwork associated with going back and forth across the US border.

“Even that small piece alone, not having to cross the border and go to the US, with the Elastimold™ critical equipment, gets them back up connected in weeks, not months.”

Given the current landscape of grid modernization and resiliency projects across the country, utilities are growing their labour support, as well as their approved contractor networks to support the work being done.

ABB is responding to that by prioritizing Canadian expertise on their end.

“This has created a need for manufacturers to step up here.

“Any manufacturer of a critical asset should have local expertise to support the utilities on demand. Local experts that can help coach the teams, help them through equipment configurations and even efficient deployment as they learn more, as they mature, as the labour force is growing.

“This high turnover has created this small void in coaching and training that manufacturers of critical assets just have to step up [and fill].”

“There’s a clear wish for utilities, Canadian utilities – they’ve always wanted to spend their budget with Canadian manufacturers, but more than ever, with the political climate, utility customers are asking manufacturers to operate locally, provide support within the country.”

What Utilities can Expect

ABB will provide remote assistance and diagnostics. They will connect with utility technicians via video conferencing to conduct remote diagnostics and consult on site configurations, as well as troubleshooting and deployment questions.

For more in-depth testing, Elastimold™ equipment will be shipped to Milton where technicians will complete full-on end-to-end troubleshooting and repair if required.

Again, given the proximity, lead-times are reduced significantly. As Pedro said, from months to weeks. By staying in the country, “There’s a lot of complexity that  we’ve just completely taken out.”

In Canada for Canada

ABB has a long track record when it comes to providing local support for its Canadian clients.

“We have people in Winnipeg, we have people in BC, Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, out east,” Pedro said. “So, from a local perspective, I really feel we’ve always been close to our utilities.”

Pedro emphasized that you have to be realistic about the challenges of maintaining a reliable grid, not everything can be avoided outright, there will be disruptions. Which is a big part of ABB’s local mindset.

There is robust planning, prediction, there is mitigation, but the reality is that not everything can be avoided. For Pedro and ABB, response is critical.

“Resilience is about achieving and improving the speed,” Pedro noted.

“And that’s what this move really means to me, and to the utilities, is that we’ve really listened to what they’ve been saying and really tried to improve that.”

Ultimately, ABB wants to take cues from the utilities they work with. There is always pressure to reconnect quicker, and ABB takes their role in that seriously, Pedro said.

Utilities are looking for more local expertise; they are looking for Canadian partners that are invested in Canada.

“We’ve taken this local service move, this local service infrastructure, and we really truly are keeping that promise of being closer to them when it counts.”